Reviews

Gold Fame Citrus by Claire Vaye Watkins

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carlajo713's review against another edition

4.0

What the (and I can’t stress this enough) f***. This book has been in my hold folder on overdrive for almost a year. In fact, it has been so long I don’t remember very the how, why, what, or details to my adding it to my list. But.... this was a fabulously written, descriptive piece that speaks to what could happen if efforts in conservation fail. Are we there yet? No, but the imagery produced in this book made it feel pretty darn possible. There were a few vulgar moments. They were oddly comparative to the vulgarity of the situation. Raw, gritty, real. Overall a quick read I didn’t want to put down.

agmaynard's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Audio, very well narrated by Jorjeana Marie (main narrator) and MacLeod Andrews (for Ray and Levi.) Compelling and sometimes brutal. Often beautiful, lyrical language. Ray and Luz are a little unit of two, until they rescue toddler Ig and become a family for a time in a water-starved near-future California. This took a while to work through, and had fittingly also been on my TBR for some time.

colin_cox's review against another edition

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4.0

As the title suggests, Gold Fame Citrus is a book about motivations, in particular, the motivations that inform Western migration and the promises of Hollywood. But in Gold Fame Citrus those motivations are subverted by the presence of an ecological disaster that left most of California and the surrounding area in ruin and desolation. Watkins transforms the West from a space of promise and hope that so many people wish to find, into a space of isolation and despair that people cannot escape.

The ontological and existential viability of this space and the paranoia surrounding its continued existence emerges as a significant theme in Gold Fame Citrus. Several characters, for example, are convinced that the US government wishes to destroy this dead space, either by nuclear annihilation of some other equally horrifying means. In Watkins' hands, the West becomes a space for the persona non grata, and in this sense, Watkins articulates a very real and upsetting tendency we have when faced with catastrophes.

There's a lot to like about Gold Fame Citrus, but the characters are not one of them. Most of the principal characters are unredeemable and unlikable, but that seems to be Watkins' point. Like the landscape that surrounds them, these characters are dry, brittle, and potentially not worth salvaging.

Gold Fame Citrus is by no means a perfect book, yet Watkins successfully uses the features of dystopian fiction to understand our contemporary ecological crisis.

goatemail's review against another edition

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challenging dark reflective sad tense medium-paced

4.0

claire_melanie's review against another edition

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4.0

Creepy, depressing and bleak book about the ecological disaster and the end of the world and humanity but weirdly enjoyable too. Well written and an enthralling read.